Julian Ward Liverpool
Liverpool are set to appoint their new sporting director
Majority Liverpool owners FSG have reportedly decided to make an internal appointment to replace Richard Hughes as the club’s sporting director after an extensive search.
Hughes left his role earlier this month, choosing to join Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal after two years at Anfield, during which time he oversaw the big-money transfers of Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola.
His departure followed that of Michael Edwards, who stepped down as the chief executive officer of football of FSG back in July.
All in all, it was a busy summer on Merseyside, with a consortium including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also taking over a third of Liverpool.
As our sources have previously revealed, FSG have scoured the market for Hughes’ replacement before deciding to keep things in-house by choosing Julian Ward.
As per a report from The Athletic, Ward will switch from FSG technical director to Liverpool’s sporting director, with a process overseen by FSG president Mike Gordon now nearing its conclusion.
Ward actually had a variety of different roles at the club since 2012. Indeed, he was European scouting manager for Spain and Portugal, then loan pathways manager and then assistant sporting director.
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Second time round for Ward as Liverpool sporting director
Following Edwards’ departure in 2022, Ward was promoted to become sporting director, but ended up stepping down at the end of the 2022/23 campaign, which came as a surprise to FSG.
He then followed Edwards back to FSG in 2024 and was tasked with overseeing player development pathways and the academy, and is now returning to Anfield as sporting director.
During his previous short-lived stint as sporting director, Ward oversaw the signings of current Reds star Cody Gakpo, along with Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez. He was also instrumental in the capture of Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton.
The reshuffle at FSG means that David Woodfine will remain as Liverpool’s assistant sporting director, working underneath Ward, while Pedro Marques – who was another candidate for the role and a close colleague of Ward – will stay as FSG’s director of football development.
As TEAMtalk previously revealed, FSG did also speak to external candidates, including Brentford technical director Lee Dykes, while they were also keen on Bournemouth president of football Tiago Pinto.
Despite the breadth of the search, we also understood that the internal route remained the most likely outcome, and that has now come to pass with the return of Ward to a critical role at Anfield.
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